Chapter 170: Absolute Evil

Garou has turned Bang's Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist into a way of sensing the flow of all energy in the universe, and his new All Life Eradication Fist lets him copy any technique instantly. He charges Saitama with a Nuclear Fission strike whose blasts carry the destructive force of a nuclear weapon.

Saitama stays unharmed but irritated at his ruined clothes, and their exchange escalates until Garou fires a Gamma Ray Burst that hurls the hero away. With Saitama temporarily gone, Garou drops among the frightened Z-City heroes, embraces the moment, and declares it is finally time for him to conduct evil.

The nuclear explosions trip the decontamination system aboard the Gotz Okkie, and Psykos, watching from afar, likens the blasts to Homeless Emperor's divine-power spheres. Garou boasts that he can now read Saitama's movements, and after activating Mode: Saitama, the two land identical Consecutive Normal Punches that fling them into the ocean and back. Saitama regrets promising Tareo he would not get scratched, which Garou mocks.

Garou's Gamma Ray Burst lights the sky and blasts Saitama off, while the heroes below struggle under the shockwave. Sweet Mask confronts Flashy Flash over sheltering Manako, who dismisses her as a useful exotic animal. Garou then lands before the gathered heroes, and as they stare in terror, he looks skyward, thanks the presence that empowered him, and names himself the Absolute Evil he long craved.

Bang crawls from the rubble and asks whether his former student is still in his right mind, and Garou insists he has always been alert. A flashback shows how God, disguised as Bang, offered its hand, and even after Garou slapped it away, the brief touch let the entity name him its avatar and flood him with power. In the present, Garou tells Bang he still values the Water Stream Rock Smashing Fist lessons, apologizes to Tareo in his mind, and prepares to unleash his evil.

The chapter released June 9, 2022, under the title Absolute Evil, which Viz Media also uses. It belongs to the Monster Association Arc, fills Volume 33, and adapts parts of webcomic chapters 82 and 92. Garou appears on the cover.